Andrew Dismore

PRESS RELEASE: IMMEDIATE: 5/7/12

Andrew Dismore, Labour London Assembly member for Camden and Barnet challenged Mayor Johnson over his poor record on the London Living Wage, during Mayor’s Question Time.

Mr Dismore asked the Mayor, when he awarded the sponsorship to Emirates for the cable car and granted Virgin Media the franchise for WiFi on the Tube, why he did not insist on those companies  paying their staff the London Living Wage.

Mr Dismore said:

“The Mayor has been trumpeting the success of these two projects, yet did nothing to ensure that their low paid staff are guaranteed the bare minimum he accepts is needed to survive in the capital.

Instead of calling it the Emirate AirLine it should be called the Emirates poverty line. Instead of WiFi, Virgin should be asked “why low?”

The Mayor claims 100 companies are signed up to the London Living Wage, but this represents less than 9,000 workers, just 1.3% of the total of 680,000 Londoners who are in work but who are also in poverty, despite their working hard to make ends meet. With their dependants, the total of Londoners in the capital living in households that work but are still in poverty is one million.

Yet there have been no new announcements of companies signed up to pay the London Living Wage since Autumn last year. The Mayor should get his finger out, and instead of trying to redefine poverty to suit himself, he should  put more time and effort into helping those in need, by ensuring that  at the least those who get high profile contracts from the Mayor sign up to pay the London Living Wage. “